TODAY: Putin heads off Syria strike in ‘diplomatic coup’, Lavrov and Kerry to meet today; Navalny to submit complaints over hundreds of electoral violations; disabled population struggling; E.U. hits back over Russian pressure on its neighbours; payout for gay rights activist.

Russia looks to be headed for ‘a huge diplomatic coup’, as both Syria and the U.S. said they welcomed Russia’s ‘very specific’ plans to place Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile under international control, thereby putting U.S. military action on hold.  ‘We have seen more co-operation from Russia in the last two days than we have heard in the last two years.’  President Vladimir Putin added to Russia’s position as peacekeeper with an op-ed in the New York Times, in which he made a personal direct appeal to the American people to observe ‘international law’ by maintaining peace, and claiming that poison gas used in Syria was released not by Bashar al-Assad’s government, but by opposition forces, who aimed ‘to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons’.  U.S. Senator John McCain commented, ‘If you’re sitting in Putin’s seat, I think you’re feeling pretty good today.’  Bloomberg looks at what Russia stands to gain – business-wise – from brokering a deal with Syria to give up chemical weapons, noting that chemical disarmament is a lucrative enterprise.  U.S. Secretary of State is to meet with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva today to smooth out differences over how a disarmament plan should be implemented.